Ramona Singer on Her Split From Mario, His Cheating: He's "Not the Man I Married," Divorce Is a "Relief"

Real Housewives of New York City star Ramona Singer opened up to Us Weekly about why she finally left her husband Mario after 27 years together
Credit: Robin Marchant/Getty Images

Ramona Singer is closing the book on her marriage to estranged husband Mario Singer -- but not before telling her side of the story. Days after tweeting about their split on Aug. 7, the Real Housewives of New York City veteran, 57, opened up to Us Weekly about why she finally decided to leave him, this time for good.

"We were working very hard on our relationship and making great progress," Ramona told Us, noting that she and Mario, who share daughter Avery, 19, had been in therapy for about 15 weeks before their breakup. "It was really working well, and then I got the feeling that he started seeing [Kasey Dexter] again." (Mario, 60, was first linked with young socialite Dexter in 2013.)

Suspicious, Ramona confronted her husband in therapy on July 23. "He wouldn't admit to it. He said everything was great with us," she recalled to Us. "Then the next morning I pushed him on it and he admitted he [had seen her], and I just said, 'I can't do this anymore. Goodbye.'"

That day, July 24, she kicked him out. "I left him a note saying, 'Please don't come to the house in the Hamptons, and please get an apartment. I don't want to see you anymore.' And that was it," the jewelry and wine purveyor told Us. "He kept calling me and calling me, but I wouldn't take his calls." She added that she has "no idea where he's living" now.

Mario and Ramona first separated in January of this year, after she discovered his alleged affair with Dexter, but they reconciled a few weeks later. This time, though, there will be no reunion. "A lot of women told me you leave when you're ready; you don't need to leave because he cheated on you. And I looked at the bigger picture. There were problems in our relationship, but nothing bad enough for him to cheat," she explained, noting that Mario "cried and begged" for her to take him back. "So we were working on it. And then I just realized, no, that's a betrayal, a lack of respect to me and my daughter."

Now she's steadfast in her resolve to move on, and to go through with the divorce she filed for in January. "I would never reconcile with him. No chance," she told Us. "I believe in marriage, I gave him a second chance, and he betrayed me and our daughter. You just don't do that." (Mario, for his part, has already been spotted out in public with Dexter; the two were photographed in Sag Harbor, N.Y., shortly after Ramona's announcement.)

Leaving him is "a relief at this point," she said. "I was walking on eggshells. I have closure now. You give someone a chance, and if they can't change, you have to go on with your life." Of Mario, she added: "I married a traditional man, a God-fearing man -- high morals, high scruples, believes in family and tradition. This man today is not the man I married."

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